This month Crème Brûlée speaks to a veritable French musical legend: monsieur Jean Michel Jarre. During the RBMA session during Les Nuits Sonores in Lyon, Jean Michel Jarre
talked to French journalist Patrick Thévenin about his fantastic
career. From his GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicales) years to Oxygène,
from his gigantic live performances around the world to the 80 million
records he sold in between. Crème Brûlée offers two hours of intimate
chat with one of the most influential French musicians of all time.

This month Crème Brûlée speaks to a veritable French musical legend: monsieur Jean Michel Jarre. During the RBMA session during Les Nuits Sonores in Lyon, Jean Michel Jarre
talked to French journalist Patrick Thévenin about his fantastic
career. From his GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicales) years to Oxygène,
from his gigantic live performances around the world to the 80 million
records he sold in between. Crème Brûlée offers two hours of intimate
chat with one of the most influential French musicians of all time.

"Sounds like" … the keyboardist who fathered a cult, Jean
Michel Jarre, performs his mega-selling album Oxygene in full.Photo: AFP

RELEASED in 1976, Oxygene was a sensation: futuristic
Continental machine music, not so very different from what
Kraftwerk were up to in Dusseldorf at the time, but a whole lot
more popular. It sounded wide-eyed and innovative - and seemed to
signal a coming era where mankind and technology would
synchronise.

Seemingly to be found in every household at the time, the album
was a strange, otherworldly artefact. Each unnamed track was
numbered: Oxygene I, Oxygene II and so on. But the one that
really stood out was the fourth one. It was awash with whooshing
Hawkwind-style spacey noises, yet it pulsed with ultra-modern
electronic energy.

More importantly, Oxygene IV contained one of the
catchiest synth motifs ever: beew ba-boo-boo beew. These five notes
made Oxygene a huge, unlikely success story: an
instrumental, electronic, ecological concept album that became a
global monster.

"Yes," says Jarre when I catch up with him in France, "30 years
ago there weren't so many people thinking about the planet. But
I've always been interested in that, not necessarily in a political
way but in a poetic, surrealistic way."

In 2008, Oxygene still sounds cutely retro-futuristic.
Jarre is touring the album in Europe and last Sunday played it in
its entirety at London's Royal Albert Hall. The accompanying CD and
DVD (which EMI Australia has yet to release, but is available from
online stores) incorporate the old analogue technology of the
original album.

"These instruments are legends of electronic music and could
easily be compared to the Fender Stratocaster for rock'n'roll," he
says. "It's the dream of any violinist to play a Stradivarius, an
instrument designed centuries ago, and it's the same with these
instruments designed by fantastic craftsmen with poetic visions of
the future."

His performances are a chance to put the gigantism of his
record-breaking outdoor concerts on the backburner and remind
people of his roots in the pre-digital electronic vanguard.
Jarre's enormous and famously rain-lashed gig at London's
Docklands in 1988 were small fry compared with a 1986 concert in
Houston, Texas, attended by 1.5 million, and a Paris gig in 1990
with 2.5 million fans.

Jarre, 59, is the son of Maurice Jarre, who composed music for
the films of David Lean, and French Resistance heroine France
Pejot. In the '60s, he studied at Pierre Schaeffer's Groupe de
Recherche Musicale. Schaeffer was the man who invented musique
concrete, the experimental form based on tapes of "found" sounds
that created the concept of sampling. Schaeffer taught the young
Jarre that "music isn't made of notes, it's made of sounds" and
switched him on to the potential of synthesizers. Jarre was soon
collecting the equipment with which he would record
Oxygene.

"All those ethereal string sounds on Oxygene IV come from
the VCS3," he says, "It was the first European synthesizer, made in
England by a guy called Peter Zinoviev. I got one of the first
ones. I had to go to London in 1967 to get it, and it's the one I
still have onstage 40 years later."

Jarre, however, spent a great deal of time dabbling before the
formula came together. He tried his hand in bands, recorded an
unsuccessful synth album, soundtracked a feature film, composed for
a ballet and produced advertising jingles (one of which, for the
1974 opening of the Paris toll-road Autoroute A4, is rumoured to
contain the original incarnation of Oxygene IV).

His main source of income was as writer of French hits for
artists such as Patrick Juvet and Francoise Hardy, but back in the
kitchen of his flat in Rue de Tremoille, Paris, he recorded a
burgeoning arsenal of analogue synthesizers on his eight-track. "I
wanted to find a bridge between musique concrete, electro-acoustic
music and proper rock music," he says.

A painting he bought of the earth peeling to reveal a skull
inspired a loose concept for the music. It was by the ecologically
motivated artist Michel Granger and the pair met, agreeing its use
as cover art. In 1976, however, the idea didn't find many
takers.

"No singers, no proper titles, just: I, II, III, IV, V and VI,"
sighs Jarre. "Even my mum was telling me, 'Why are you calling your
album by the name of a gas?' It was refused by a lot of
companies."
Eventually, Jarre's fellow former Schaeffer student Helene
Dreyfus persuaded her husband Francis to put Oxygene out on
his label Disques Motors (now Disques Dreyfus). Although initially
unconvinced by synthesizers, Dreyfus took a gamble and pressed a
run of 50,000.

Oxygene IV was soon plucked out as the pivotal track. In
Britain, the BBC's Radio 1 began supporting it and, on the
Continent, Europe 1 made it the theme to one of its regular
programs.
The long-term Jarre associate Francis Rimbert, then working in a
Paris music shop, recalls: "If you entered a music store with
keyboards, you'd see all the young beginners trying to play
Oxygene IV. A massive phenomenon was happening."

Oxygene went on to sell 15 million copies. But Jarre
became tarred with an unwanted brush. In 1976, there was already a
thriving prog-synth scene.

Richard Branson made his first Virgin million on the back of
Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells (1973); names such as
Tangerine Dream, Tomita and Wendy Carlos had solid student-hippy
followings. Jarre says that Oxygene was "a UFO arriving
during the period of disco, punk and the Sex Pistols", but it
didn't gel with the zeitgeist.

Punk, when it eventually gave any time to synths, favoured the
coldness of Kraftwerk, which translated into the glacial posturing
of Cabaret Voltaire, Gary Numan and early Human League. Kraftwerk
became the godfathers of electro and techno, two permanently cool
genres.
Jarre always eschewed robotic references and, while he could
reasonably claim a stake in clubland's popular trance sound, his
persistent allusions to earthy elements and "the biosphere" have
forever associated him with the new age movement.

Telegraph, LondonTelegraph, LondonOxygene: Live In Your Living Room is
available as an import.

Jean Michel Jarre wished to pay tribute
to this legendary, literary giant in giving the title of « 2010 » to his
world tour which debuted six months ago to full houses in the United
Kingdom, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Holland, Poland…and to audiences of
all generations. One word welcomed him on the road: Pioneer.

Today, Jean Michel Jarre is synonymous
with Myth. Oxygene, Equinoxe, Magnetic Fields, but also Deserted Palace
or Zoolook imposed a visionary genre of music of which we can find
influences of amongst many artists, from Air to Daft Punk, Moby or The
Chemical Brothers.

His concerts are also part of the Jarre
myth. Those who have had the opportunity to witness these exceptional
events that have marked his career, from China to Houston, London
Docklands to the Great Pyramids of Egypt…will forever remember these
extraordinary events.

To partake in this incredible
experience, Jarre has decided to revisit his « all-in-one-show »
concept, by integrating the very latest technology in sound, light and
special effects for an outstanding result.

A unique opportunity to live, or relive, an extraordinary moment.

Jean Michel Jarre first came to
international fame in 1977 with his number one hit album, « OXYGENE »
which went on to sell over 18 million copies worldwide.

An extraordinary destiny, that of Jean
Michel Jarre’s, following in the path of another, that of his father,
Maurice Jarre, composer of some of the most famous and popular
soundtracks of legendary Hollywood films
(Doctor Zivago, Laurence of Arabia…) : two musicians, two
celebrities, father and son, renowned worldwide for their individual,
singular talent.

Jean Michel Jarre, a pioneer in his
field, has largely contributed to the fastest growing musical revolution
of the 20th century, electronic music : conceiving music in terms of
sounds rather than only in terms of notes, and thus allowing the
composer to become his own craftsman.

Having followed formal studies of
harmony and counterpoint at the Conservatoire de Paris, he was inspired
to reinvent music at its core, with his own singular vision, deploying
the technology and tools of his epoch. This pioneering approach gave
birth to worldwide hit albums such as “OXYGENE”, “EQUINOXE”, MAGNETIC
FIELDS”, “ZOOLOOK”, “RENDEZ-VOUS”, “WAITING FOR COUSTEAU”….over 80
million albums sold to date.

Following through with his revolution in
music, he also conceived a brand-new genre and format of concerts ;
breaking away from the traditional theatre and arena context, Jarre
brought his music and vision outdoors to the masses. Often free and
open-to-all, these state-of-the-art concert-spectaculars showcase the
natural or urban environment in which they are performed – a truly
singular sonic and visual “land-art” event, conceived and performed on a
unique scale for a one-off experience.

They take place in exceptional settings,
marking extra-ordinary contexts: From post-Mao’s Red China to that of
today, from Texas in collaboration with NASA and the tragedy of
Challenger, to the concert welcoming His Holiness Pope John-Paul II to
the city of Lyon in France during, historically, one of the country’s
most vicious waves of terrorism and coinciding with fatal predictions
delivered by Nostradamus, from the
saga of the Docklands with players such as HRH Diana Princess of Wales,
colourful tycoon and media mogul Robert Maxwell, not withstanding the
atrocious weather conditions…

From Poland for Solidarnosc at the
initiative of Nobel Peace Laureate, Lech Walesa, to Paris for the
environmental statement voiced by Jarre in the name of Jacques-Yves
Cousteau, to the Great Pyramids of Egypt welcoming the New Millennium,
to the absolute record live audience of 3.5 million in Moscow, and his
ongoing engagement to the United Nations via UNESCO as Ambassador and
spokesperson for Environment and Education….the well-travelled path of
this visionary musician and humanitarian is certainly most unique : an
exceptional log-book retracing his and our epoch on so many levels.

2009-2010 sees Jarre booked for his
first ever world tour. Over 100 dates where he offers a rare opportunity
to share his talent live – to date, the European arenas played to
full-house, have revealed a most cross-over audience : young amateurs of
techno-electro, white-collar professionals, the high-tech &
audiophile 40-somethings, the original Oxygene generation…and women of
all ages who nurture an ongoing crush for the suave Frenchman.

But if Jarre’s music is so universal, it
is also because it is in a timeless class of its own, created by a man
who has always followed his own vision and expression far from the
passing trends, driven by an immense curiosity for the world and
universe in which we evolve : the wonders & sounds of nature, the
awareness of preserving our planet, the politics and sociology of our
times, the rich variety of culture and people across the continents, the
fantastic evolution of technology in our living generation, how music
is truly a universal language whatever the age, gender, culture or
class…These themes that have always driven Jarre, and that are the
foundations of his successful and ongoing singular career.

WEMBLEY LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - In a stunning tour de force of
energy harnessed and channeled, Jean-Michel Jarre performed before a
packed audience in Wembley Arena. In this his first ever World Tour,
Jarre provided a unique and intimate opportunity for audiences see his
electronic wizardry up-close-and personal, featuring music from his
milestone albums, played live on the original analogue synthesizers, and
legendary Laser Harp. Jean-Michel had them standing in the aisles. And
on this auspicious occasion, Jean-Michel Jarre embraced the race, the
World Sky Race.

On hand to witness his live performance at Wembley were Don Hartsell the
Commissioner of the World Air League and Mike Mansfield, the TV
producer who captured the spirit of the Millennium when he filmed
Jean-Michel Jarre's historic sunset to sunrise Millennium concert at the
foot of the Great Pyramids.

At the outset of his career Jean-Michel revolutionized the art of live
concert performances when he created his spectacular, cityscape
concerts, painting the architecture and the skies of some of the planets
major landmarks, in sound and light ; Paris, London, Beijing, Moscow,
Cairo, Houston...

"In physics there are many forces that act on each other and build into a
greater expression of awesome power. As our Artistic Director, this is
the creative energy that Jean-Michel brings to the World Sky Race.
With his direction, we will achieve memorable crystallized
visualizations for the world to enjoy and savor." - Don Hartsell

27/08/2012

The World Sky Race will take airships over famed world landmarks, including the great Egyptian pyramids

(CNN) -- Don Hartsell knows his idea could be considered crazy.

"I thought this project
was so large, so ambitious, that no one would take me seriously," says
the Texas resident and aircraft enthusiast. "In fact, I was concerned
they would think I was insane."

Hartsell is talking about his World Sky Race,
which as conceived would be a grand global spectacle. If all goes
according to plan, a fleet of airships will take off from London in 2014
and race each other around the world, watched by millions of
spectators, before finishing six months later just outside of Paris.

The event is planned as a
series of 18 back-to-back races that will circumnavigate the globe.
Although the route isn't finalized, the proposed path will take pilots
over at least four continents and about 130 United Nations Education,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage sites -- among them the Egyptian pyramids, the Taj Mahal, the Statue of Liberty and the Palace of Versailles.

Hartsell, founder of a
group of blimp enthusiasts known as the World Air League, expects
celebrations in each of the cities where the airships touch down, with
wide-eyed children gathering to see the blimps float overhead. He
estimates 140 million people around the world will witness the race -- a
number that dwarfs the 5 million or so spectators for the London Olympic Games.

Don Hartsell, commissioner of the World Air League.

The first-place prize for
the speediest airship? Hartsell promises at least $5 million and the
title of World Sky Champion. He plans to officially announce the race at
Versailles this fall, giving interested competitors almost two years to
prepare.

A far-fetched dream?

As you can imagine, there
are still a lot of "ifs" surrounding the World Sky Race. Skeptics might
rightly wonder if it will ever happen. Start dates have been thrown
around for years -- September 2011 was one that was widely reported --
and yet Hartsell's race has yet to get off the ground.

Hartsell says he is still
securing sponsors and raising prize money, as well as negotiating with
princes and politicians for permission to fly airships over their
landmarks. The market crash of 2008 caused delays and led potential
sponsors to walk away, he says.

Hartsell estimates there
are 30 to 35 airships in the world, and he hopes to rally at least five
of them to participate in the race. Each blimp will represent a nation,
region or city, which he believes will encourage fan and sponsor
support. He expects the race to cost about $50 million, to be financed
by donations and sponsorships.

"It's being funded purely by that good old mechanism we call capitalism," he said.

For each of the 18 legs
of the race, the blimps will have to follow a set flight path. They will
fly about 2,000 feet above sea level, making them visible to people on
the ground. The airships expect to average about 70 miles per hour,
which would allow them to travel about 1,000 miles a day, Hartsell says.

Competitors will be
timed from the moment they depart to the moment they arrive at an
official endpoint. The blimp with the shortest cumulative time will be
crowned the victor.

From the Hindenburg to Goodyear

Mention of airships brings to mind the 1937 Hindenburg disaster,
in which a German passenger airship went up in flames while attempting
to dock in New Jersey, killing 36 people. The Hindenburg was a rigid
blimp, with an aluminum frame containing hydrogen-filled bags that
lifted it into the air. Many airships today are non-rigid vessels that
have no frame and are instead filled with helium -- which, unlike
hydrogen, is not flammable.

Tim Crouch, senior curator of aeronautics at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum,
said airships had their heyday during the first 40 years of the 20th
century because they were more capable than airplanes of carrying heavy
loads over long distances. But as airplanes grew larger and faster,
blimps were used less often to ferry cargo.

The military used blimps
for surveillance and reconnaissance until the 1960s, said Crouch,
noting that the U.S. Navy has been experimenting with a blimp again in
recent years. In recent decades airships such as the Goodyear or DirecTV
blimps have been used for commercial purposes, usually at parades and
sporting events.

Crouch said using
airships as advertising is an age-old tradition he can see investors
buying into, especially in a race around the world.

The idea for the World
Sky Race first came to Hartsell when he was 23 years old and in New York
City for the U.S. bicentennial celebration of 1976. As he watched the
Goodyear blimp hover over tall-masted sailing ships in the harbor, he
envisioned creating an airship race that would unite and inspire people
like the bicentennial did.

But it wasn't until 30
years later, after he worked as a accountant, an attorney and an
entrepreneur, that Hartsell decided it was finally time to make the
World Sky Race a reality.

"I started this out
with, 'OK, you're at a point in your life where either you can retire or
you can do something worthwhile.' I went, 'Are you still crazy?' Then
the next question I asked myself was, 'How's your health?' Because to
put this together has turned into a large undertaking. Then the third
question: 'If not now?' And so with that, it started."

Hartsell has found
backing for his venture from such heavyweights as the former CEO of
Lockheed Martin, a member of Jordan's royal family and officials at
UNESCO. Francesco Bandarin, UNESCO's assistant director general for
culture, said the race would allow the U.N. to highlight its World
Heritage sites, which range from natural wonders such as the Grand
Canyon to man-made landmarks like the Sydney Opera House.

"This offers a great
opportunity to publicize the sites, and ... the need to rally
international support for their conservation," Bandarin said. "This race
would be a world premiere -- something never tried."

'He thinks big'

As Hartsell sees it, his event isn't just about racing blimps.

He has enlisted the help
of Scott McNealy, former chairman of tech giant Sun Microsystems, to
use the World Sky Race as a teaching tool for children around the world.

Since his days in
Silicon Valley, McNealy has helped create Cirriki, a nonprofit that
allows educators to share K-12 curricula on its website. McNealy hopes
to use Cirriki.org to help
teachers and students track the race and to give them lesson plans about
geology, ecology, history and culture related to the airships' travel
around the world.

"Anything that gets
students out of the rut of the physical textbook I think is a good
thing," McNealy said. "I never would have come up with a blimp race as a
way to do that, but you can see that it would be very fascinating to
young kids."

Hartsell also hopes the
race will spur the development of new airship technology. He sees these
vessels, which require less fuel and infrastructure than many other
means of transportation, as the future of aviation.

"It makes so much sense
for the environment, and it also makes so much sense for not having to
build the roads and not having to dredge the harbors," he said.

Even as a member of the
World Sky Race's advisory council, McNealy confesses he doesn't know
exactly when, or even if, the race will happen. But he hopes Hartsell's
dream for this one-of-a-kind event comes to fruition someday.

"You've got to give him credit," McNealy said. "He thinks big."

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Texas aircraft enthusiast is planning a blimp race that would circle the globe

The World Sky Race would kick off in 2014 from London and end outside of Paris

Organizer Don Hartsell estimates 140 million people around the world will witness the race

Hartsell says he is still securing sponsors and raising the $5 million prize money

PARIS, FRANCE - Mr. Jean-Michel Jarre
agreed to join the World Air League Honorary Board
of Directors and will serve as Artistic Director for the Inaugural World
Sky Race. Jean-Michel Jarre is a Goodwill Ambassador for UNESCO. As a
performance artist, Mr. Jarre is a pioneer and a revolutionary
superstar of electro-acoustic music. His unique signature concerts are a
fusion of
high performance analogue synthesizers choreographed with extravagant
and cutting edge lasers and bold pyrotechnics. His mega-event concerts
have attracted world recording setting audiences. Listed in the Guinness
Book of World Records, Mr. Jarre's Oxygene concert was performed in
Moscow before a live audience of 3.5 Million. The stages for his
adrenalin inspired
performances are timeless, epic and legendary.

In the role of UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, Mr. Jarre uses his
international events as a platform to raise public awareness of UNESCO's
mission. He regularly performs at UNESCO World Heritage sites, helping
to promote the importance of heritage preservation to millions of people
around the globe. A tireless campaigner for the rights and education of
youth, he sends a powerful and positive message of tolerance,
multiculturalism and respect for all to young people everywhere.

In accepting his new role, "The World Sky Race is an inspiring and
audacious challenge, that the world needs today more than ever. I am
greatly honored to be a part of creating this spectacular and inspiring
event." - Jean-Michel Jarre.

The total number of page views

Jean Michel Jarre first came to international fame with his number one hit album, « OXYGENE » which went on to sell over 18 million copies worldwide.

A pioneer in his field, Jarre has largely contributed to the fastest growing musical revolution of the 20th century, electronic music : conceiving music in terms of sounds rather than only in terms of notes, and thus allowing the composer to become his own craftsman.

Having followed formal studies of harmony and counterpoint at the Conservatoire de Paris, he was inspired to reinvent music at its core, with his own singular vision, deploying the technology and tools of his epoch.

This pioneering approach gave birth to worldwide hit albums such as "OXYGENE","EQUINOXE", MAGNETIC FIELDS", "ZOOLOOK", "RENDEZVOUS", "WAITING FOR COUSTEAU"...over 80 million albums sold to date.

Following through with his revolution in music, he also conceived a brand-new genre and format of concerts; breaking away from the traditional theatre and arena context, Jarre brought his music and vision outdoors to the masses. Often free and open-to-all, these stateof- the-art concert-spectaculars showcase the natural or urban environment in which they are performed -- a truly singular sonic and visual "land-art" event, conceived and performed on a unique scale for a one-off experience.

Jarre's legendary concerts have attracted Guinness Record-breaking audiences across the planet. They take place in exceptional settings, marking extra-ordinary contexts: first western musician invited to perform in post-Mao Red China, Millennium at the Great Pyramids of Egypt, Houston City concert in collaboration with NASA in memory of the Challenger space crew, Concert for His Holiness Pope John Paul II, France's Eiffel Tower in celebration of World Cup victory, Gdansk's shipyard at the initiative of Nobel Peace Laureate Lech Walesa, London's Docklands, Beijing's Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, the Sahara Desert...to the absolute record live audience of 3.5 million in Moscow.

Most recently, Jean Michel Jarre embarked on his first ever world tour which has already taken him to over 30 countries with over 220 performances.

July 2011, HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco called upon Jean Michel Jarre to celebrate his Royal Wedding by creating and performing a concert-event in the Principality which was largely broadcast on television & Internet worldwide to an estimated audience of 3 billion.

The French musician has a dedicated ongoing engagement to the United Nations via UNESCO, as Ambassador and spokesperson for Environment and Education.